Mementoes In Time

I do love gingerbread houses but to be perfectly honest, I have never successfully made one. This got me to thinking about making a chipboard one instead, so here is the result.

I think this makes a really cute decorative piece for the table. The only problem, is that I made this about a month ago and the number of lollies around the bottom seemed to shrink..hmm, I wonder where those went...Anyway, imagine a plate covered with sweet treats!

This has been made using our new combined Chipboard House and Bird Box Double Template. available on the download pages. This template includes a basic house design, with and without windows and doors and a bird box design. Each comes in a range of sizes, so you can create boxes to suit your project.

The basic box is easy to make, which leaves lots of time for the really creative bit of decorating. Simply cut out the pieces for the template you want to use.

Glue one side piece onto one end piecem making sure you use your good solvent or very strong PVA glue. It is important to do it in the right order, so that the pieces fit together properly.Then glue the other side piece in the same way.

Add the other end piece and hold until fixed.

Add the roof pieces one at a time, gluing them onto the base piece and to the other roof piece.You can add a base piece if you wish, but I have left mine as an open box.

I decided to paint my house with an acrylic paint but you could use papers instead. Use the template pieces to draw around onto your paper before you assemble the house. I've decorated my house with a dimensional white paint from the art store, which gave a pretty good rendition of royal icing and trimmed it with some festive buttons.

You could decorate this in so many ways and even get the kids involved. Here are some more small boxes made with this template and the Bird Box which is also included.

Two mini houses and a bird box. The base is tied on with ribbon and can be opened to put small gifts inside.

Two Bird Boxes

Papered Bird Box Tree Decoration

Mini Gingerbread House made with the Bird Box Template

  We are taking a short break to fit in some Christmas activities but will be back with a few more projects very soon.

Happy Crafting!